Thanks for the welcome! I hope we can make something come of this format
So I hope. But I must thank you instead, for collaborating with this project and keeping the ball rolling.
Those Uruk trackers look good for a beatdown, but not for a swarm (which is the main potential of
Tol Brandir). For a swarm, we have only
Uruk Foot Soldier and
Uruk Plains Runner (there's also
Uruk Pursuer and
Uruk Seeker, but those are pretty weak in this format). Foot Soldier and Plains Runner are very easy to kill, but that can be countered by
KoI and
Broad Bladed Sword. All in all, I'd add 1 and 1:
Uruk Plains Runner for a swarming Shadow, and
Uruk Runner or Chaser for a beatdown. Those are fierce by themselves, so
Worry gets aided by including them.
About
Ugluk's Sword, that's a great card but has the problem of not being consistent with the lore of the FOTR book (or movie). The
Broad-Bladed Sword might bring new game mechanics, allowing a non-fighting
Saruman SotE to cause big troubles without worrying about archery. That can be a good addition, and doesn't depart too much from the lore. Even
Black Shapes Crawling can be another good addition, as
KoI can prevent the wounds and
weapons might get more importance.
Any version of Boromir will get a lot of healing here (
Halbarad,
Elrond HtGG,
KiE,
Aragorn's Pipe; that's at least 2 wounds per turn), so banning
DoMT won't solve the issue of the Horn. As posted before, I think that R-listing the Horn can be the best option, as
OWMWF can act as a substitute (while you still don't draw it), but the
Horn of Boromir plays an important part of the story, so Dmaz and I didn't want to remove it. I'd vote for keeping
DoMT and adding
Destined Guide.
The problem with
Tom Bombadil cancelling skirmishes, is that in FOTR block
events can only cancel skirmishes until site 5, after that only against Nazgul (OEG) and in fierce skirmishes (Bolger) you can cancel, and at a high cost. Bombadil kicks that site 5 to 8. So I believe that RB skirmishes shouldn't be cancellable. You'd still be able to cancel skirmishes of other hobbits, so that part of both gameplay and story won't be removed, but merely balanced.
For the A-RB, I think the same as you my fellow. I know Bilbo didn't want to carry the Ring (though he offered to do so), but that can be portrayed by his lower resistance and the moving penalty. Besides those disadvantages, there are HUGE benefits of having Bilbo as RB:
CWW makes him unkillable by non-archery wounds,
RBoW can provide plenty of drawing,
PEWI can play a specific Hobbit from draw deck,
Stone Trolls... and
Pippin FtF makes those tales invulnerable to
Saruman's Power.
-
Anduril FOTW will negate both
Flaming Brand and the overpowered
Aragorn's Bow, while adding new mechanics like playing sites 3 & 6. RotN can take advantage of that +1 vitality. And choke Frodo + Aragorn decks will take that vitality bonus pretty well, using a
Coat of Mail instead of an
Armor.
-
Urgency +
No Ordinary Storm = condition protection
. And
Urgency can also help minions that have no pumps or very few, like Saruman or The Balrog. I like the idea.
-
Lurtz's Bow is the only
card I know that can be played with
Uruks, and that vitality addition can be useful in many combos. I we add it, you might still be able to use that Archery skill, by discarding 2 other copies of
Lurtz's Bow (very unlikely).
-
Durin's Tower can help other unique
minions, like
Troll's Keyward (bearing a
Moria Axe!),
Ancient Chieftain,
Guard Commander (frequent victim of FP tanks),
Archer Commander (ditto)... I like it. As a side note, the Watcher in the Water is not a real threat in absense of
Evil-Smelling Fens. Should we add it?
-
Lost in the Woods can pump Bill Ferny. And no, they don't like forests
, they just pursued and ambushed hobbits at forests. I don't think it fits well with the lore and the FOTR format mechanics. But may pump Barrow Wights too, which is something to consider. There are only 3 cards in FOTR block that can work together with Set 16 Wraiths:
Gates of the Dead City,
Otsea LoM and
Morgul Skulker. And Ferny, of course. But the lack of tricks for Barrow Wights can make them unpopular and even weak, so adding 1 or 2 lore-consistent cards for any
minion will be very important for them.
I don't like
LitW here.
Urgency can help, but still is not enough. Between Nazgul and Prey is their main weapon in Expanded.
Dark Swooping Shadows can be an awesome card for this goal (and would be useful only for Wraiths, not for Nazgul).
Houses of Lamentation can be good too.
Nazgul Scimitar?
Flung Into the Fray?
In Twilight perhaps, but it's too powerful. I'd vote for
Dark Swooping Shadows and
Houses of Lamentation. Not exactly lore-consistent, but don't depart too much from the story.
-
Gimli OG won't be drawing more cards than
Book of Mazarbul, or
Elrond LoR +
Ottar (or + Celeborn). But can turn
Dwarven Armor into a much more viable card. Gimli would be drawing cards before the
Book of Mazarbul triggers and that can be very helpful to assemble much faster, but after that won't help much more.
- The card I cannot like in this format is
Whip of Many Thongs, WoFaS, because it will kill event based FP decks (
SotSF,
Flurry of Blows/Axe Strike,
Elladan and
Elrohir...). Given the power rise in this format, pumps and other events will be much necessary most of the times. At underground sites
The Balrog, TToKD won't be killed and will be unable to use the other
WoMT's skill, I think it's a good balance and don't like the idea of disturbing it.
A last thing: we might need to keep the account of the "Additional Valid list" cards, at the end we might be adding too many cards and can be unnecesarily bloated.
I'm waiting to see what do other guys think about Dictionary's ideas. Dmaz, Sgtdraino, Bib... Everyone is welcome!